Letter from Dan Lungren, 1-18-11

Today the House is beginning consideration of H.R. 2 – legislation that would repeal the health care law enacted last spring.  It would also instruct four Committees to report legislation to the House that will replace the health care law. 
One of these four committees tasked with offering legislation to replace the law is the Judiciary Committee, of which I am a member.  In the last Congress, I supported legislation as it moved through the Judiciary Committee and then to the House floor that would repeal the anti-trust exemption enjoyed by the health insurance industry since 1945.  Our Committee should continue to evaluate areas where we can improve the health care landscape.  Some things that will fall under our Committee’s purview will be reforming medical malpractice litigation, buying insurance across state lines, and reviewing the constitutionality of certain provisions of the health care law, such as the individual mandate to purchase government-approved health insurance.
As the House looks at different ways to improve the laws governing our health care system, we will seek to enact legislation that will:
foster economic growth and private sector job creation by eliminating job-killing policies and regulations;
lower health care premiums through increased competition and choice;
preserve a patient's ability to keep his or her health plan if he or she likes it;
provide people with pre-existing conditions access to affordable health coverage;
reform the medical liability system to reduce unnecessary and wasteful health care spending;
increase the number of insured Americans;
protect the doctor-patient relationship;
provide the States greater flexibility to administer Medicaid programs;
expand incentives to encourage personal responsibility for health care coverage and costs;
prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions and provide conscience protections for health care providers;
eliminate duplicative government programs and wasteful spending; and
not accelerate the insolvency of entitlement programs or increase the tax burden on Americans.
Throughout today and tomorrow, I will keep you updated as the House spends seven hours debating the repeal of the health care law before the final vote on Wednesday.  In the meantime, I welcome your views on the subject and would appreciate your time in answering the short survey below.
Sincerely,
Daniel E. Lungren
Member of Congress